I made a start at opening up the hatches that needed to be opened in the sail.

I dont know if you can see it but this fiberglass is really, really thick.

After using a drill bit to carefully make a start at removing material ,I rounded up all my carbide cutters for my Dremel and took inventory.
I will be using These bits along with my trusty 90 degree attachment for the dremel to help me in my carving project. Not to mention all the limber holes that need to be done. Any volunteers?

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Vlad has a tendency tp make his sails very thick. I had an Akula once that had Fiber glass layers and then about an inch of extra epoxy. Perhaps he makes these thing expecting you to actually break through ice while playing in the winter?

Moving right along on this project , I got to looking at the prop shafts and their bearings. It seemed to me that the way to go was to epoxy them in. So I took them and cut some grooves in them to give the epoxy something to grab a hold of.

Of course first I needed to open up some holes in the stern section in order to recieve the bearings. I did this with a regular drill. (carefull)

The bearings were slightly bigger than 3/8" O.D. so after drilling the hull the holes were opened up slightly with the dremel.( good ol dremel). The holes in the stern indicated a distance apart of 2 and 5/8". So to hold them at this and keep them at the right distance above the thrust line I constructed a jig to hold them in place while the epoxy was poured and had a chance to dry.

If you look close at this one you can see the epoxy that was poured inside.

After it had dryed I could not resist sticking those beautiful propellors on them. (forgive my premature impertanance)

You will notice that the thrust line is 1/4" below the seam.
Next time we will braze together the linkages for the dive planes and rudders.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Because of my background in welding and the availability of the tools at my place of employment I committed myself to make the hardware for the linkages in the stern of the boat. Using Dubro set screw collars and a strip of brass flat stock and some brass tubing I proceeded.
This is a view looking aft at the control rods from the three rudders and the two dive planes all in place. Wont be too bad.

Using brazing torch, flux and silver solder I went about the task of making my own actuators

Here are the parts needed for linking and actuating the stern planes

And here it is brazed together

And from inside the hull here it is in place

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

At the same time I also was working in other areas of the boat such as continuing to cut and file out the sail openings

And now for the final filing.

Also the sail needed to be cut in the rear where it sits on what I call the camel hump. Using the supplied plans I carefully marked the scale cut on the sail and cut it. OOOOPPS! There is a difference between the scale drawing and the actual hull. OOOOPPS! Oh well, the cut was too deep. So it was a simple matter to cut a strip of wax paper or freezer paper and to tape it to the camel hump, mix up some bondo and apply it to the ooops area of the sail. I then (after marking the sails proper position on the model) placed it in position and allowed the excess bondo to expel itself at the joint. Then using a putty knife I scraped away the excess and allowed it to dry. After drying, a little bit of sanding and it fits as if it were made that way. Oh, uh, nobody but you and I need to know of this. Mums the word.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Another move that was made was to open up the bow plane area in the hull. This was done using dremel tool and a small end mill that can drill its own hole but also then open up the hole to the line using the same tool. After I got as close as I dared to the line I then used various files to do the rest.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Just a post to let you know what has been happening to me. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have been unable to do anything with my hobbies, until now. Shortly I will continue this thread, although at a slower pace. Due to my new situation my focus will be split between two building projects. This one and the conversion of my Albacore to a duo-prop water ripper. Stay tuned!!

Last edited by greenman407 on Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Its been a while since I posted anything usefull so I thought I would take this oppurtunity to do just that. How to attach the rudders and stern planes? They come from the factory with pins that are sticking out to engage holes in the hull for alignment and stability. As you have to drill the holes yourself its best to check to see if they are correct. Dont do what I did and blindly trust that they are in the right place. They were off quite a ways. If they were a perfect fit to the pins it would be a simple matter to just apply some adhesive to them and there you are. Since I had already drilled mine before I realized that they were so far off I had to look into another means of attachment. I thought about drilling larger holes in the hull and trying to inject epoxy into them and thus onto the rudders and planes but even wrapping the joints in masking tape seemed to be asking for trouble,ie: leaking epoxy and a big mess! Hey! What about screwing them on? Thats the ticket!

Last edited by greenman407 on Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Using a right angle drive on my Dremel/ Sears moto tool and a small drill bit I figured out the best place for the location of the screw based on the shape of the fin. I drilled carefully from the inside of the hull to make my first hole. Then sizing the drill bit to the screws that I wanted to use I put the fin in place and drilled a hole also from the inside of the hull and into the fin using the first hole as a guide. Carefully drill a little at a time and watch that you keep the drill bit perfectly(to the eye) perpendicular so that you dont break thru out the side of your fins. I used a short small diameter phillips stainless steel screw and a nifty little rachet to screw them in. I will post pictures next time. Cheers!

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG

Ok , here are some photos.
Here we have the rear section and the upper rudder
As you can see the hole has already been drilled and I am now installing the screw with my mini rachet. Since it seems to have worked well the next step is to do the other ones.

There are OLD pilots and there are BOLD pilots but there are very few OLD BOLD pilots. MAG